HWK: Reread chapters 20-25

Select a quote for each theme, annotate it and post it on the blog:PossessionGender rolesScience/religionFairytales/mythFreedom vs restiction/safetyResurrection and death

Must be posted on the blog before the lesson after Christmas

What is the most tense moment in the section we have just read?

How has the tension been created?

HWK: Reread chapters 17, 18 and 19.

Select a quote for each theme, annotate it and post it on the blog:PossessionGender rolesScience/religionFairytales/mythFreedom vs restiction/safetyResurrection and death

Must be posted on the blog before Tuesday’s lesson

In classical literature the quest begins with an initiator who is in need of something or someone import. This object requires a substantial effort to

obtain. A long and substantial journey follows […]The quester usually faces some difficulty during the course of the journey either before the

destination is reached or after the object is obtained. The quester may or may not face some sort of test and/or challenge before obtaining the

object. The quest is usually complete when the quester returns with or without the object of the quest.

Paul Barette, http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/ach-allc.99/proceedings/barrette.html

How is ‘Possession’ influenced by this literary form? How does Chapter 17 reflect this?

Ch 18Gloves lie togetherLimp and calmFinger to fingerPalm to palmWith whitest tissueTo embalm

In these quiet casesWith hands creepWith supple stretchingsOut of sleepFingers clasp fingersTroth to keep

How does Byatt use the epigraph to introduce the ideas/events in the following chapter?How does the poem reflect the theme of possession?

Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot. Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life which people earth. Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags.

Later on, (p.336) Jane Eyre is referenced explicitly.

Chapter 19

1. How are men and women presented in the epigraph? How do they contradict Victorian society’s expectations?

2. How does this compare to the way Sabine writes about women’s roles on p.340 and 343?

3. On p354 Sabine’s father discusses the meaning of the myth of Merlin and Vivian. How do his ideas relate to the idea of possession and male female relations? How does this link to other ideas in the novel?

4. Look at Gode’s story (p.358). How does it reflect the themes of the novel and Christabel’s situation? How is it similar to the tale of the little mermaid and to the story of Christabel and Ash?

5. On p369 Sabine is unable to explicitly write what Christabel “had concealed” and then on p.372 her father tells her that Christabel “is somehow fatally split in two, and that she has not let her conscience and public self know what is to happen to her”. On 378 she refers to C’s “prohibition”.

What do these quotes tell us about : a) Victorian society and b) religion? How do they remind you of Melusine or the features of fairytales?